i can see that ft, what do you think of that huge atrium they created on the tower side of the boot building? It has potential, but right now it seems like a tall, dark, boring place to be in. Something is off with the scale. I think the foot part of the boot is pretty nicely developed though.

That building must take its shape from the rise and fall of a 3d line graph...modeled in Excel from some esoteric data set?

Who knows why they made that huge atrium. It does look almost completely without natural light. It seems sensationalist and without justification, and then they stick another big X in the middle of it as if to fudge how uninteresting it is... who knows anymore.. I feel sorry for Beijing. They need buildings that address their real social and environmental problems and they get this messy thing.

firetruck my point was just that it's pretty easy to criticize something by saying for example: why build this big expensive building - they should instead solve the huge problems facing the nation.

Of course, that would be a lot nicer than having a big "messy" building that does not even address environmental/social issues in any way.

but come on. get real.

It's a piece of architecture that tackles some questions concerning hierachies, transparency and massmedia. succesfully or not will be proven by the finished project. It's unfair to change criteria and suddenly say it should be green. or socially more aware. or cheaper.

The CCTV building is in my opinion the most exciting of chinas new developments - most of which is quite bland in the end. It will endure as something to be debated and referred to.

so yeh. I guess that was my point. and I can't even start to think what a building that would address Chinas real social and environmental problems would be about... Maybe an installation by D&S with a huge cloud of smog that conceals a bunch of red monkeys figting in a cage or something - all in one subtle package. problem solved. great.

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I actually put together a 16 camera system myself for way less than if I had hired a
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